If you ask online casino gamblers what is their favourite thing about online casino gambling besides actually withdrawing their winnings, almost everyone will answer that they absolutely love bonuses.
In fact, bonuses are one of the decisive factors that impact the player’s decision to register a casino account and deposit some money to the site for real money bets.
However, online casino bonuses are not free money given out by casinos to players; all bonuses are subject to strict rules and limitations.
The bad news is that the majority of online casino punters fail to analyze those rules and limitations; to be honest, many players never even read the Bonus Terms in the first place.
As a result, they run across such limitations as wagering requirements or capped maximum winnings.
Let’s discuss one of the most crucial aspects of casino bonuses – wagering requirements and explains what are the best no wagering casinos and why they are one of the best options for real money gambling.
If you would like to know more about how bonuses work, and how to choose them, check out a detailed guide by CasinosHunter, one of the online parlor reviewing platforms.
Wagering Requirements: Pig in a Poke
Wagering requirements, also called playthrough demands, have no country restrictions; in Canada, Europe, and in Asia, online casinos apply wagering requirements to their bonuses.
Wagering demands indicate the number of times the sum of the bonus has to be wagered in parlor games before the player is allowed to withdraw the winnings associated with the bonus if any are left on their bonus balance.
Here is how it goes. If a parlor offers a 100% match up to $100, starting from a $10 minimum deposit, and the playthrough requirements are x30, it means the following.
The player deposits money to the site; the minimum sum after which a bonus can be claimed is $10, and the maximum sum is $100; the player can deposit more than $100, but the maximum bonus they receive will still be $100 extra.
Let’s pretend the player deposits $10, and eventually gets a 100% match to their deposit – another $10. However, the player cannot just wager this money in parlor games, win something, and immediately withdraw.
Casino games really allow one to win cash, so parlor sites secure themselves from too abundant winnings, applying wagering requirements.
In our example, the playthrough requirements applied to the bonus is x30, meaning the player has to wager $300 in real money games before they are even allowed to withdraw anything.
But if the player deposits $10 and gets $10 extra, where do they get $300 to meet the wagering demands?
Well, the parlor suggests they are lucky and win enough money to cover the playthrough requirements, and still have something on their balance left for withdrawal. The majority of times, however, the player runs out of money, and the bonus gets canceled.
Deposit Plus Bonus Wagering Requirements
Now it becomes obvious that the higher the wagering requirements, the less favorable the bonus conditions for the player.
However, some casinos apply the playthrough demands to both deposit and bonus amount; for example, a $10 deposit and $10 bonus subject to x30 wagering requirements mean $600 must be wagered before the player can withdraw anything.
This rule makes parlor bonuses even less advantageous.
What Are Favourable Wagering Requirements?
At the time of writing, low playthrough requirements are between x30 and x35, and there is no limit for high wagering demands.
The point is that there are no legal requirements, neither by the countries where casinos are hosted nor by the licensing authority, about how high the playthrough requirements can be. So, the general rule is the lower, the better.
No Wagering Bonuses
There is a way out, however, from this circle or unmeetable playthrough requirements for parlor bonuses. Today, more and more parlor sites offer bonuses that are not subject to wagering demands at all.
Such bonuses may be really humble, and usually, they are granted in the form of Free Spins (not cash).
But no playthrough bonuses are extremely beneficial for the player, because they own whatever they win by wagering the bonus, and if they fail to win at some point, they are aware the reason was their bad luck, and not the casino’s stupid rules.
No-wager casinos are still rare, but they are already there and can be taken advantage of. Players who love bonuses should definitely look for no-wager casinos.